Claude Skills

Introducing Agent Skills (Claude Skills): Claude can now use Skills to improve how it performs specific tasks. Skills are folders that include instructions, scripts, and resources that Claude can load when needed. Claude will only access a skill when it's relevant to the task at hand. When used, skills make Claude better at specialized tasks like working with Excel or following your organization's brand guidelines. https://claude.com/blog/skills

• Skills extend Claude Code with your team's expertise and workflows. Install skills via plugins from the anthropics/skills marketplace. Claude loads them automatically when relevant. Share skills through version control with your team. You can also manually install skills by adding them to ~/.claude/skills. The Claude Agent SDK provides the same Agent Skills support for building custom agents.

Skills are:

• Composable: Skills stack together. Claude automatically identifies which skills are needed and coordinates their use.
• Portable: Skills use the same format everywhere. Build once, use across Claude apps, Claude Code, and API.
• Efficient: Only loads what's needed, when it's needed.
• Powerful: Skills can include executable code for tasks where traditional programming is more reliable than token generation.

Using Skills in Claude: https://support.claude.com/en/articles/12512180-using-skills-in-claude

Creating custom Skills: https://support.claude.com/en/articles/12512198-how-to-create-custom-skills

Skills in Claude Code

https://docs.claude.com/en/docs/claude-code/skills

Agent Skills - Claude Code Docs

Create, manage, and share Skills to extend Claude’s capabilities in Claude Code.

extend Claude’s functionality through organized folders containing instructions, scripts, and resources.

Each Skill consists of a SKILL.md file with instructions that Claude reads when relevant, plus optional supporting files like scripts and templates

How Skills are invoked: Skills are model-invoked—Claude autonomously decides when to use them based on your request and the Skill’s description. This is different from slash commands, which are user-invoked (you explicitly type /command to trigger them).

Personal Skills are available across all your projects. Store them in ~/.claude/skills/:

• Copy
• Ask AI
• mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills/my-skill-name

Use personal Skills for:

• Your individual workflows and preferences
• Experimental Skills you’re developing
• Personal productivity tools

Project Skills are shared with your team. Store them in .claude/skills/ within your project:

• Copy
• Ask AI
• mkdir -p .claude/skills/my-skill-name

Use project Skills for:

• Team workflows and conventions
• Project-specific expertise
• Shared utilities and scripts
• Project Skills are checked into git and automatically available to team members.

Skills can also come from Claude Code plugins.

Create a SKILL.md file with YAML frontmatter and Markdown content:

Field requirements:

• name: Must use lowercase letters, numbers, and hyphens only (max 64 characters)
• description: Brief description of what the Skill does and when to use it (max 1024 characters). The description field is critical for Claude to discover when to use your Skill. It should include both what the Skill does and when Claude should use it.

Add supporting files

Create additional files alongside SKILL.md:

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my-skill/
├── SKILL.md (required)
├── reference.md (optional documentation)
├── examples.md (optional examples)
├── scripts/
│   └── helper.py (optional utility)
└── templates/
    └── template.txt (optional template)*

Reference these files from SKILL.md:

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• *For advanced usage, see reference.md.&

Run the helper script:

python scripts/helper.py input.txt
```*

*Restrict tool access with allowed-tools*

*Use the allowed-tools frontmatter field to limit which tools Claude can use when a Skill is active:*

*View available Skills*

*Skills are automatically discovered by Claude from three sources:*
* *Personal Skills: ~/.claude/skills/*
* *Project Skills: .claude/skills/*
* *Plugin Skills: bundled with installed plugins*

*To view all available Skills, ask Claude directly:*
* *Copy*
* *Ask AI*
* *What Skills are available?*
* *or*
* *Copy*
* *Ask AI*
* *List all available Skills*

*Debug a Skill:   
If Claude doesn’t use your Skill, check these common issues:*

*View errors*

*Verify file path*

*Share Skills with your team*

*Make description specific*

*Test a Skill:   
After creating a Skill, test it by asking questions that match your description*

*Recommended approach: Distribute Skills through plugins. To share Skills via plugin:*
* *Create a plugin with Skills in the skills/ directory*
* *Add the plugin to a marketplace*
* *Team members install the plugin*

*Check YAML syntax*

*Changes take effect the next time you start Claude Code. If Claude Code is already running, restart it to load the updates.*

*Update a Skill*

*Remove a Skill*

*Keep Skills focused   
One Skill should address one capability*

*Best practices*

*Write clear descriptions*

*Document Skill versions*

*Troubleshooting*

*Claude doesn’t use my Skill*

*Skill has errors*

*Multiple Skills conflict*

*Next steps*
* *Authoring best practices*
* *Write Skills that Claude can use effectively*
* *Learn how Skills work across Claude products*

*Use Skills in the Agent SDK*
* *Use Skills programmatically with TypeScript and Python*
* *Create your first Skill*
* *PluginsOutput styles*
* *⌘I*

*Test with your team*